Roadkill Ghost Choir back in Savannah with Dead Confederate

Deland, Fla., folk rockers Roadkill Ghost Choir are playing the Jinx with Dead Confederate on Friday.

Deland, Fla., folk rockers Roadkill Ghost Choir are playing the Jinx with Dead Confederate on Friday.(Special to the Savannah Morning News)

It’s been a busy year or so for Roadkill Ghost Choir.

The DeLand, Fla., folk rockers released debut album “Quiet Light” in September after crowdsourcing some of the funding on Kickstarter.

The six-piece band has been on the road since, playing gigs across the country, including a set at South by Southwest.

“We describe our music as spacey folk rock,” said Andrew Shepard, lead singer and guitarist for the band. “It’s psychedelic in some ways, and we have a little of that twang with banjo and pedal steel, but it’s mostly rock.”

On April 26, Roadkill will be at the Jinx with established Athens rockers Dead Confederate, touring to support their freshly released third full-length album, “In the Marrow.”

It will be Roadkill’s second trip to Savannah this year — the first a late-night show during the Savannah Stopover Music Festival in March.

“It was pretty fun,” said Shepard. “Some drunk guy wanted to fight me, but other than that, it was a good show.”

Still, he said the band members are excited to be back.

Most recently, Roadkill has been playing a set of shows out west with Grammy-nominated South Carolina rockers Band of Horses, one of Shepard’s musical influences.

“It’s been a pretty good experience,” Shepard said. “Seeing the country and playing music — I can’t complain.”

Shepard, 24, has been playing music since he was about 15 but only picked up guitar and songwriting when he was about 20.

Though the band’s name may be eerie, the music isn’t.

The origins: Before joining the group, a guitarist had wanted to start a string band jokingly named Lester Possum and the Roadkill Ghost Choir.

“When he joined the band, we didn’t really have a name,” Shepard said. “We were just using my name on flyers. We liked Roadkill Ghost Choir, so we stole that from him.”

Though the shows with Band of Horses have exposed Roadkill to large audiences, Shepard said they still have plenty of love for more intimate venues like the Jinx.

“We love playing live, and we take it really seriously and hopefully if people come out, they’ll connect to it,” Shepard said. “We try hard, at least.”To listen to Roadkill Ghost Choir’s album “Quiet Light,” go to roadkillghostchoir.bandcamp.com. To listen to “Vacations,” a song from Dead Confederate’s new album, “In the Marrow,” as well as other music by the band, go to soundcloud.com/deadconfederate.